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On the mountaintop farm of the Stanley Orchards the branches of the trees sag toward the ground, laden with large bright red and golden yellow apples waiting to be picked.
As the harvest opens, the size and color of the apples here and at other orchards around the state indicate a very good crop this year, growers said. "For the state as a whole it's one of the best and most beautiful crops we have ever had," said Michael Durango, president of the New York Apple Institute, a growers' group.
In the Hudson Valley, a major fruit-growing area, Warren Smith, the apple expert of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Service, said, "It looks like one of the better crops in terms of incredibly good color and large fruit size."
"We have never had harvest weather as good as in the last two weeks," said Ron Cohn, president of the Stanley Orchards, a family owned corporation. "It's been magnificent."
Although apples are rarely sold by the bushel anymore, farmers continue to use the word, which refers to 42 pounds, as a measure of the crop.Continue reading the main story
Throughout the state growers cite favorable weather -- a wet August, when the fruit was growing, and cool crisp days when the fruit started to mature this month -- as a reason for the good crop.
"The only fly in the ointment is that some fruit is dropping prematurely before it can be picked," said Craig Telgheder, fruit agent of the Extension Service in Columbia County.
In Albany the State Agricultural Statistics Service said early indications were that the state's production would total 24.5 million bushels, or 1.03 billion pounds, up 18 percent from 20.7 million bushels, or 870 million pounds, last year.
Mr. Durango said he had heard reports indicating that the crop might run 25.5 million bushels, or 1.07 billion pounds. If that figure is reached New York could regain its position as the second leading apple state, behind Washington. Last year, New York, because of what farmers described as poor weather, fell to fourth, behind Michigan and California.
Last year New York growers sold their crop for a total of $110 million. Although the wholesale price this year has not been set, Mr. Durango and others said the indications showed "a favorable price situation." Record Possible in Washington
The national production this year will total 258 million bushels, or 10.8 billion pounds, 1 percent above last year, the Statistics Service said. The agency said Washington would set a record, with more than half the total, 131 million bushels, or 5.5 billion pounds, up 10 percent from 1993.
In Washington, Red Delicious is the major apple. But in New York, McIntosh is premiere, followed by Romes, Rhode Island Greenings, Red Delicious, Ida reds, Cortlands and Empires. In the 700-acre Stanley Orchards on Route 32 south of New Paltz in Ulster County, the Cohns grow 15 varieties of apples, with maturation from late August until late October.
The crop will be sold to supermarkets, farm stands and food chains or put in refrigerated warehouses for sale later. In addition the Cohns have opened a retail stand in front of their packing house. The price of a half peck, about five pounds, was $2, or 40 cents a pound.Continue reading the main story


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by Andrew Grush, 11 hours ago
The Alliance for Wireless Power has now officially introduced its new Rezence power standard, which uses magnetic resonance instead of inductive charging. Keep reading to learn more!
by Gary Sims, 2 months ago
There are currently three rival groups trying to create the definitive wireless charging standard, Samsung and Qualcomm both belong to two of them. Now Samsung has boosted its interest in the WPC and the Qi standard by investing $4 million in a company called PowerbyProxi.
by Robert Triggs, 8 months ago
Wireless charging is still an emerging technology, but the battle is already heating up between the Wireless Power Consortium and the Alliance for Wireless Power for who will control the global standard. We break down the differences between the two competing technologies.

domain: news


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Cookie consent banners that use blatant design tricks to try to manipulate web users into agreeing to hand over their data for behavioral advertising, instead of giving people a free and fair choice to refuse this kind of creepy tracking, are facing a coordinated pushback from the European Union’s data protection regulators.
A taskforce of several DPAs, led by France’s CNIL along with Austria’s authority, has spent many months on a piece of joint-work analyzing cookie banners. And in a report published this week they’ve arrived at some consensus on how to approach complaints about certain types of cookie consent dark patterns in their respective jurisdictions — a development that looks set to make it harder for deceptive designs to fly around the EU.
The taskforce was convened in response to hundreds of strategic complaints, filed between 2021 and 2022 by the European privacy rights group, noyb — which developed its own tool to help automate analysis of websites’ cookie banners and generate reports and complaints (a smart trick by a small not-for-profit to scale its strategic impact).
Cookies and other tracking technologies fall under the EU’s ePrivacy Directive, which means oversight of cookie banners is typically decentralized to regulators in Member States. That in turn means there can be varying applications of the rules around the bloc, depending on where the website in question is hosted. (Regulators in some Member States, for example, allow news sites to offer users a choice between accepting ad tracking to gain (free) access to the content or paying for a subscription to get access without tracking — although such ‘cookie consent paywalls’ remain controversial and are unlikely to pass muster with every DPA.)
Given the degree of consensus reported by the taskforce, it suggests there will be some harmonization in how DPAs enforce complaints related to the design of cookie consent banners — with, for example, the vast majority of authorities agreeing that the lack of a ‘refuse all’ option at the same level as an ‘accept all’ button is a breach of ePrivacy. So more enforcement against sites that try to bury an option to refuse tracking looks likely.
The taskforce also agreed that consent flows which feature pre-checked options (i.e. as another tactic to try to nudge agreement) is not valid consent either — which should surprise no one given Europe’s top court already clarified a need for active consent for tracking cookies all the way back in 2019.
Over the past five or so years, since another EU law came into application bolstering the rules around consent — namely the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — DPAs have certainly been paying more attention to cookie consents. Including as complaints over how routinely the rules were being flouted piled up.
This in turn has led many to update (and tighten) their guidance on this issue — making it harder for sites to claim the rules around tracking consent are unclear.
Enforcements have also been picking up, with certain watchdogs being very active — such as France’s CNIL which, since 2020, has fined a raft of tech giants (including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok) for a variety of cookie-related breaches, including multiple enforcements (and fines) over the use of dark patterns to try to manipulate consent.
The CNIL’s enforcement activity has also featured corrective orders that have helped forced some major design changes — including Google revising the cookie banner it displays across the whole EU last year to (finally) feature a top-level ‘refuse all’ option. Which is quite the win.
And given the CNIL has had a leading role in coordinating the taskforce’s work, it appears that some of its convention is rubbing off on fellow DPAs.
In a press release to accompany the European Data Protection Board’s adoption of the taskforce’s report earlier this week and summarize the outcome, the French regulator writes: “This report notably states that the vast majority of authorities consider that the absence of any option for refusing/rejecting/not consenting cookies at the same level as the one provided for accepting their storage constitutes a breach of the legislation (Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive). The CNIL had already taken such a position in its guidelines and in the context of several sanctions,”
As well as agreement on the need for an ‘accept all’ button to be accompanied by a ‘refuse all’ one, the taskforce agreed that the design of cookie banners needs to provide web users with enough information to enable them to understand what they are consenting to and how to express their choice.
And that cookie banners must not be designed in such a way as to give users “the impression that they have to give a consent to access the website content, nor that clearly pushes the user to give consent”, as the report puts it.
They also agreed on some examples of cookie designs that would not lead to valid consent — such as where the design is such “the only alternative action offered (other than granting consent) consists of a link behind wording such as ‘refuse’ or ‘continue without accepting’ embedded in a paragraph of text in the cookie banner, in the absence of sufficient visual support to draw an average user’s attention to this alternative action”; or where “the only alternative action offered (other than granting consent) consists of a link behind wording such as ‘refuse’ or ‘continue without accepting’ placed outside the cookie banner where the buttons to accept cookies are presented, in the absence of sufficient visual support to draw the users’ attention to this alternative action outside the frame”.
So basically they got some consensus on ruling out certain common cookie banner dark patterns.
But on visual tricks — such as the use of highlight colors which might be selected to draw the eye to an ‘accept all’ button and make it harder to see a refuse option, the taskforce decided that case-by-case analysis of the look and feel (and the potential for these kind of design choices to be obviously misleading) would be needed in most cases. And they agreed it’s not their place to impose a general banner standard (vis-a-vis colour and/or contrast) on data controllers.
They also agreed that refuse all buttons that are designed in such as way as to render the text “unreadable to virtually any user” could be “manifestly misleading” for users.
Other issues the taskforce grappled with included a more recent addition to cookie consent hell — in which sites may seek to (also) to claim a “legitimate interest” for ads processing. Sometimes adding a bunch of additional toggles alongside the consent legal basis buttons that are typically displayed only in a secondary (or other sub-menu), and where the top level does not offer a ‘refuse all’ option — instead requiring users to click through into settings to unearth this confusing mess of toggles (sometimes with the LI ones pre-checked).
“The integration of this notion of legitimate interest for the subsequent processing ‘in the deeper layers of the banner’ could be considered as confusing for users who might think they have to refuse twice in order not to have their personal data processed,” the report observes on this.
The taskforce also agreed on how regulators should determine whether any subsequent processing based on cookies is lawful — saying this would entail determining whether “the storage/gaining of access to information through cookies or similar technologies is done in compliance with Article 5(3) ePrivacy directive (and the national implementing rules) — any subsequent processing is done in compliance with the GDPR. 24”.
“In this regard, the taskforce members took the view that non-compliance found concerning Art. 5 (3) in the ePrivacy directive (in particular when no valid consent is obtained where required), means that the subsequent processing cannot be compliant with the GDPR 5. Also, the TF members confirmed that the legal basis for the placement/reading of cookies pursuant to Article 5 (3) cannot be the legitimate interests of the controller,” they add in the report.
Although they appear to have largely reserved judgement on how to handle the fresh scourge of LI toggles appearing in cookie consent flows — saying they “agreed to resume discussions on this type of practice should they encounter concrete cases where further discussion would be necessary to ensure a consistent approach”.
The working group also discussed what to do about sites that seek to classify some non-essential data processing as strictly necessary/essential — and thereby bundle it into a category which does not require consent under ePrivacy or the GDPR. However they took the view that there are practical difficulties in determining which processing is strictly necessary.
“Taskforce members agreed that the assessment of cookies to determine which ones are essential raises practical difficulties, in particular due to the fact that the features of cookies change regularly, which prevents the establishment of a stable and reliable list of such essential cookies,” they wrote. “The existence of tools to establish the list of cookies used by a website has been discussed, as well as the responsibility of website owners to maintain such lists, and to provide them to the competent authorities where requested and to demonstrate the essentiality of the cookies listed.”
On another issue — of withdrawing consent — they agreed website owners should put in place “easily accessible solutions allowing users to withdraw their consent at any time”, giving the example of a small icon (“hovering and permanently visible”) or a link “placed on a visible and standardized place”.
However they again shied away from imposing a specific standardized way for users to withdraw consent on site owners, saying that they could only be required to implement “easily accessible solutions” once consent has been collected.
“A case-by-case analysis of the solution displayed to withdraw consent will always be necessary. In this analysis, it must be examined whether, as a result, the legal requirement that it is as easy to withdraw as to give consent is fulfilled,” they added.


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Sine Mora was one of my favourite games of 2012, a sublime steampunk hori bullet hell shooter that got my thumbs up here at GodisaGeek. Now, with Grasshopper Manafacture taken over, the Hungarian half of the Sine Mora equation are striking out on their own.
Prior Games is a new developer composed of former Digital Reality creative director Theodore Reiker, along with “key talent” from the Hungarian studio and other new staff.
In an interview with Joystiq, Reiker revealed that the new team will return to the shmup genre in 2014, with another “Japanese-Hungarian co-development” codenamed Project Verona. “It will be more conservative in its gameplay and less ambiguous in its storytelling,” Reiker notes, though he adds that it will also branch out from the conventions of the genre.
But before that larger-scale project, Prior is working on a series of “microgames” for phones and tablets, with presentation inspired by Nintendo’s minimal bit.Generations and Art Style series. The first game is Rotolla (above), coming to iOS in early February. As Reiker describes it, it’s “a hybrid of Tetris’ gameplay and our mad love of hexagons since Super Hexagon.” The title is a dual-language portmanteau of “rotation” and motolla, the Hungarian word for a spinner’s weasel. It also features an original soundtrack from “company friend” Akira Yamaoka.
Our plan is to release four microgames this year and a second wave of three titles next year,” Reiker told us ? all with simple visuals, to keep the scope of the project manageable.
We are a small company and we do not want to grow beyond 15 persons,” Reiker explained. “We would like to keep the ‘manufacture’ feeling even if the company size is limiting the scope of our output.


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It seems that tons of developers are on board for Nintendo’s new console, the Switch. Level-5, the publishing company behind Ni no Kuni, Yo-Kai Watch, and the Professor Layton franchise won’t have any games at the launch of the system but there are plans to put future titles on Nintendo’s new home console.
In an interview with Vandal.net, the CEO of Level-5, Akihiro Hino, shared some details on a certain game that was announced last year during PlayStation Experience. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a PS4 exclusive that is of course the follow-up to the 2010 hit that was Ni no Kuni.
Via a translation courtesy of Gematsu, Hino tells us that the sequel will feature many new gameplay elements that were not in the original game. Talking about the features he tells us that”from the fact alone that we moved from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4, it will not be a simple RPG, and will introduce a new system focused on creating a kingdom. So yes, there will be many differences.”
The typical gameplay of Ni no Kuni will surely remain in the awaited sequel, like befriending enemies and adding them to your party. It’s very Pokémon-esque in the way that you train your creatures and “evolve” them to become stronger allies.
Vandal asked Hino about Level-5’s support of the Nintendo Switch. He responded, “We plan to make games for Nintendo Switch, but I think it’s very important to find out the best way to get the most out of the console. For that reason, we won’t have any titles at launch, but we’ll work with it as soon as we figure out how to take advantage of it.”
I’m sure that Level-5 has loads of ideas for the new console/handheld hybrid that is the Switch. We’ve seen a lot of their titles on Nintendo’s systems; especially on the DS/3DS. There is going to be no shortage of Level-5’s work on the Nintendo Switch.
You can look forward to Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom coming out exclusively on the PlayStation 4. No release window has been announced just yet.


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W-News | Windows Phone 8 Is Supported 130 Thousand Applications | Although not as much as a collection of application Android Market and the App Store, Windows Marketplace achievement has now inhabited by 130 thousand applications worth appreciated. Given the relatively recent presence.
Even the large number of applications are present to support Windows Phone 8 is a success beyond the BlackBerry World which is still inhabited by about 90 thousand applications.
In addition to achieving the Windows Marketplace, according to a report delivered by Microsoft through its official blog also explains that his services had increased to 91% the percentage of the download.
Where 75% of which is dominated by a paid application. In addition, the number of applications that are downloaded per user has continued to increase up to 55%.
This increase is believed to be heavily influenced by sales of smart phones based on Windows Phone since the end of last year to date which is claimed to increase fourfold.
Quoted from Digitaltrends, Thursday (28/02/2013), since the launch of Windows Phone 8 in October last year, Microsoft has set up at least 15 thousand applications on the Windows Market Place.
And from then until now has more than 500 thousand Windows Phone 8 SDK has been downloaded by developers, which means that the application will be present in the Windows Market will continue to grow in the future.


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The Agreement with LifeQ provides for both companies to leverage their joint IP to be incorporated into a wearable device that delivers a unique combination of clinical and lifestyle health metrics, insights and solutions for consumer, healthcare, and enterprise customers
Lockdown clutter is causing mental stress among families with pantries overflowing due to the surge in bulk grocery shopping. A leading home organisation expert says the huge increase in people stockpiling their groceries has exacerbated domestic storage challenges.
As vaccines roll out across the country, there has been an increase in misinformation surrounding it in the form of social media posts, letterbox drops, and even advertisements.
When it comes to highly complicated devices that sustain life like an AED, CE certification is validation that the device meets highest international benchmarks for design, use and safety.
Economic uncertainty in Europe has failed to stop record growth by unicorn companies in 2021, with healthcare businesses amongst the biggest winners.
While browsing is off the cards in stores, for those who do choose to remain open to shoppers under current restrictions, they need to take the utmost care in ensuring their workplace is COVID safe, and that all visitors check-in via a QR code and wear a mask.
InstantScripts e-scripts are priced at $15, and patients can have their doctor-approved prescription medicine home delivered via express shipping for an additional $7. Its telehealth consultations are priced at $40.
For many people, first aid has been the difference between life and death, and it has become increasingly evident that this is a skill that everyone should know at a basic level. However, many people are hesitant to provide first aid as non-medical professionals, primarily because of the lack of information on how to do so.
Peloton can succeed in Australia if it addresses three pillars essential to any subscription business.
Successful grant applicants will receive up to $300k over two years to support establishment and operations.


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It's been available via Valve's Steam service for a while now, but Unreal fans who prefer to buy their games from actual shops will be pleased to hear that Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45 is coming to UK high streets later this month.
Red Orchestra is described as a "full-featured, standalone World War II first-person combat sim" that's "based on the most highly acclaimed Unreal mod ever made."
The game is set on the Russian Front during 1941-45, and you can choose from 28 infantry weapons or join the crew of 14 vehicles. There are more than a dozen maps to play through - all based on real life battles and locations.
Red Orchestra Ostfront 1941-45 is being published by Excalibur on June 23rd, priced at £24.99. A silly amount of further information is available from the game's official website.


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Aluminum’s struggles point to flaws of tariff approach
At least as far as aluminum is concerned, the president’s tariff strategy is in tatters, a recent Reuters article suggests.
Following the imposition of Section 232 tariffs in 2018, U.S. primary aluminum production rose from 741,000 metric tons in 2017 to 1.13 million metric tons last year.
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But now smelters are being idled and output is falling again.
Alcoa will curtail 230,000 tons of operating capacity at its Washington state smelter, while the future of other smelters has to be in doubt as prices remain uncompetitively low and imports continue to flood in.
Before you point to the demand destruction due to COVID-19 induced lockdowns, this process was going on before the virus.
The article suggests tariffs have done nothing to reduce U.S. import dependency, saying although imports of primary aluminum were steady last year at 4 million tons — down by just 86,000 tons from 2018 — imports of aluminum in semi-manufactured form have surged.
Demand for semis has spurred imports of plate, sheet, and strip in particular (up 12% to 1.30 million metric tons). That process of lower domestic primary metal and an increasing percentage of imports is likely to have simply been made worse by the pandemic.
To blame is the army of lawyers and lobbyists that have secured an “out of control” product-specific exclusion process, the paper suggests. Reuters states that although only four countries are exempt from tariffs — Canada, Mexico, Australia and Argentina — importers can seek product-specific exclusions from the Department of Commerce.
“The Commerce Department has granted tariff exclusions for huge volumes of aluminium can stock, plate, sheet, foil and other products – far exceeding historical import volumes and U.S. market demand,” the article advises, quoting Aluminum Association findings. The U.S. market for can-sheet, for example, is about 3.8 billion pounds per year but almost 5.0 billion pounds of exclusions have already been granted for 2020.
Not surprisingly, domestic prices have been severely depressed, and consumers are incentivized to buy imported, tariff-free or tariff-exempt material over domestic.
Unlike many other metals, the supply market for aluminum has not been hit by the pandemic. Global aluminum production was actually up 2% over the first three months of 2020; the market is in a distressingly high surplus.
In China, state governments are resurrecting stockpiling programs previously rolled out in 2009 in response to the financial crisis, in 2012-13 and the demand trough in 2015-16, a separate Reuters article notes.
Both local governments and federal agencies such as the SRB in China have openly manipulated the market in the past to support prices by announcing they are buying hundreds of thousands of tons of metal and stating the price paid was at a premium to the SHFE market price to dissuade investors from shorting the market.
The expectation is they will do so again despite China being in surplus and new smelters, such as Wenshan Aluminium’s 500,000 mt per year coming onstream this year, adding further to the oversupply.
Metal prices fluctuate. Key is knowing when and how much to buy with MetalMiner Outlook. Request a free trial.
Tackling China’s oversupply and market-distorting exports is a tough proposition, but tariffs, once seen by some as the answer, do not seem to be working.
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Just as they once moved manufacturing plants overseas, American companies are now spreading their research and product development around the world, helping to turn the creation of technology into an activity that transcends national borders.
The trend raises tough new issues for policy makers intent on preserving jobs for Americans and keeping the nation competitive in high-technology industries like aerospace, pharmaceuticals and information processing. But many business leaders say the march toward technology with no national allegiances -- the march toward the borderless lab -- is as inevitable as it is irrevocable. Government policies that do not adapt to this fundamental industrial shift, many executives contend, are bound to fail.
"Policy has to deal with these global realities," said John A. Armstrong, vice president for science and technology at the International Business Machines Corporation.
But not all policy makers and strategists agree how to proceed. Some would seek to stem the international flow to safeguard America's braintrust. Others insist that the best Government response is to accept the inevitable, while insuring that the United States offers a supportive economic environment for research and development work by foreign and domestic companies alike.
Most executives tend to be pragmatists who say that innovation recognizes no borders. "We want to be able to tap into technology wherever it is developed," said Geoffrey C. Nicholson, staff vice president for international technical operations at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. "It would be naive to think the U.S. is Mecca for all technologies." The St. Paul company, which makes everything from Post-it notes to optical data disks, now has 2,500 technical people stationed abroad, three times as many as in 1980.Continue reading the main story
Overseas laboratories are not the only mechanism for the globalization of technology development. In the last month alone, other examples have included the acquisition of a majority stake in a promising American pharmaceutical biotechnology start-up, Systemix Inc., by a leading Swiss drug maker, Sandoz Ltd. From across the Atlantic came word that I.B.M. and Siemens A.G. of Germany had jointly developed the prototype for a new generation of computer memory chip. A few days later, across the Pacific, I.B.M. said it would produce a Japanese-English notebook computer for one of its computer rivals, Tokyo-based Hitachi Ltd.
Since the mid-1980's, there have been more than 900 transnational alliances by United States businesses or investments by foreign companies in American technology start-ups, and those deals do not include countless other joint marketing agreements or outright acquisitions.
With more and more products assembled from components made around the world, notions like "made in the U.S.A." and "American know-how" may be destined to take their place alongside such relics as the "space race" and war bonds in the history of American industrial policy. Apple Computer Inc., which a decade ago was considered the epitome of renegade American entrepreneurial verve, is now working to combine its software expertise with the Sony Corporation's ability in miniaturization to develop consumer electronics devices that neither company could produce as well on its own. Big Risks for U.S. Companies
The advent of the borderless lab raises big risks for American companies and for the United States economy. Since, as is widely acknowledged, American industry often lags behind foreign companies in manufacturing, the nation's competitive edge now depends on being able to create new technologies faster than overseas rivals. But the rapid spread of technological expertise around the globe could dull this edge in the future.
Globalization also makes it more difficult for policy makers to determine how best to serve the nation's interests, or even to define what those interests are. The conundrum is likely to color the industrial policy debate that is starting to revive in this Presidential election year -- and cannot help but provide a subtext next week when President Bush visits Japan with 21 American executives in tow.
Among the policy issues is whether the Government should try to stem the overseas migration of American technology by such measures as blocking acquisitions of key American technology companies by foreign corporations.
Other questions: Does it makes sense for Washington to spend money on research and development, or on competitiveness programs like the Sematech semiconductor consortium, if the technological fruits are going to be immediately enjoyed overseas? If the Government does finance such programs, should they include only American-owned companies, or also foreign companies operating in the United States? Technology at Fire-Sale Prices?
"You don't want a situation in which very significant technology is being bought at fire-sale prices in the United States and commercialized overseas," said Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington.
Mr. Prestowitz is in the camp of strategists and policy makers who argue that the globalization of technology can still be, and should be, held in check. Access to technology, like access to markets, they say, is not equal around the world. It is far more difficult, for instance, for an American company to buy a Japanese one than vice versa, they note, arguing that the United States would be naive not to look out for its own interests.
"We're the only country in the world that thinks nationality doesn't matter," said Pat Choate, an economist who is a leading critic of foreign investment in the United States.
But another school of thought -- whose adherents include many business people -- contends that globalization is inevitable and that the best policy is to make sure the United States reaps its share of benefits from the trend. 'A Very Hazardous Exercise'
"The policies that won't work are those that assume the technology base is national," said Proctor P. Reid, who is a senior program officer at the National Academy of Engineering, which advises the Government on technical matters, and is co-editor of "National Interests in an Age of Global Technology," a book recently published by the academy.
"These global networks are already well developed," he said. "To try to tear the fabric to advantage your companies, or companies resident in the U.S., seems to me a very hazardous exercise."
Just how hazardous was shown in the recent controversy over display screens for notebook computers. To help American manufacturers of these flat panel displays, the Government levied tariffs on screens imported from Japan. But American computer companies, led by Apple and I.B.M., said the tariffs hurt them as well as the Japanese because they needed the screens to stay competitive. To avoid the tariffs, Apple and some other companies have already begun moving production of their portable machines outside the United States.
Those who share Mr. Reid's outlook say that as companies become even more globalized, the companies' nationalities will matter less and less. If I.B.M. and Fujitsu Ltd., the Japanese computer giant, were to spread their jobs, profits and expertise equally around the world, the United States might have little interest in which company triumphed in computer sales.
But, according to this line of thought, the United States would have a vital interest in securing the best jobs for its citizens by making this nation an attractive place for both Fujitsu and I.B.M. to conduct their research, development and manufacturing. Seeking Improvements
Therefore, those who see globalization as inevitable are calling for Washington to improve domestic education, modernize American factories and create advanced telecommunications networks within the United States. Such improvements, they say, cannot migrate across borders as easily as research discoveries.
"The goal is to have a flourishing climate in the United States for the creation of wealth and added value," Dr. Armstrong of I.B.M. said.
Those who think the nation should go with the technology flow also say that rather than worrying about the nation's best ideas being smuggled away, American companies and the Government should concentrate on acquiring more foreign technology and putting it to use in this country -- an effort that the United States did not have to make during the decades of American technological hegemony.
Nowadays, parties on both side of the issue acknowledge, the United States no longer holds a near monopoly on technical advances. Indeed, while the earlier movement of American manufacturing abroad was aimed largely at taking advantage of low-cost foreign labor, the movement of research and development is intended to tap foreign knowledge. Isolation Can Hurt
"If you isolate yourself to the United States you can hurt yourself and your ability to be competitive," said Alexander MacLachlan, senior vice president of research and development at E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, the American chemicals giant.
Only 10 percent of Du Pont's current research and development is conducted overseas, Dr. MacLachlan said, and "we recognize that it is not a satisfactory situation." The company is gradually increasing its level of overseas research, he said.
At Motorola Inc., the Schaumburg, Ill., maker of semiconductors and communications equipment, researchers are quick to point out that the Europeans have pioneered many developments in telecommunications, including alternatives to cellular telephones. "We ignore that at our peril," said Dick Heimlich, corporate vice president for international strategy at Motorola, which established a telecommunications research laboratory in England in 1991.
Another motive in conducting research and product development abroad is to increase overseas sales, which already account for more than half the revenues of many technology companies. Companies are also trying to achieve closer cooperation between their research-and-development activities and manufacturing, to speed the introduction of new products. Products From Singapore
That sometimes means putting research and development near manufacturing plants that moved abroad years ago. The Hewlett-Packard Company, for example, began a few yars ago to move some product development activities to a plant in Singapore that in the past simply manufactured products designed in the United States. Recently, an engineer in Singapore developed a key component that will become the basis of an entirely new line of Hewlett-Packard printers.
Sometimes, of course, political factors play a role. Hewlett-Packard's president and chief executive, John A. Young, said some foreign governments let it be known, however subtly, that they considered it good corporate citizenship to place research, development and manufacturing activities within their borders, rather than merely selling products there. The United States has also encouraged foreign companies, particularly Japanese auto makers, to set up plants and design centers in this country.
Despite the various transnational forces, technology development by American companies remains far less internationalized than manufacturing and sales. On the whole, only 10 percent of American corporate research and development funds is spent abroad. Basic research is even more likely than product development to be kept close to headquarters -- in large part because the creation of wholly new technology is so close to the heart of a company's business.
Motorola, for instance, gets half its revenues from international sales, and 40 percent of its work force is stationed abroad. But officials estimate that only 20 to 25 percent of product development is conducted overseas and only about 5 percent of pure research. Even I.B.M, whose European researchers have won two Nobel prizes, conducts less than 25 percent of its research and development outside the United States, Dr. Armstrong said. Where the Benefits Go
Armed with such evidence, some policy analysts argue that globalization is still relatively limited. There is an enduring national component to technology development, the argue, that continues to justify policies favoring American companies. "The primary benefits will always go to the host country," said Dr. Choate, the economist.
Dr. Choate and some other analysts fear that the transfer of high-paying research and development jobs could hurt the American economy by exporting prime cuts of personal income. But on this point, as in the other issues emanating from the borderless lab, corporate executives say that if they fail to direct their energies offshore when appropriate, their companies would be less competitive -- and the American economy would suffer even more.
At Hewlett-Packard, one of the nation's largest exporters, Mr. Young said the company had no choice but to continue expanding its overseas research and development. Otherwise, he said, "we wouldn't have a thriving business and we wouldn't be able to do these exports."Continue reading the main story


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Fintech has been attempting to come up with solutions for the same issues that the National Council for Inclusive Finance aims to solve
The startup industry, with its technology and digitisation process, is often praised for its ability to disrupt existing conventional business structure. However, in my opinion, there is an exception for the finance technology or fintech sector, particularly in Indonesia. In the past years, not only that fintech has become an industry of its own, but it also play a role as a solution to complement other industrial sectors.
A simple example would be how fintech startups present a solution for peer-to-peer payment, peer-to-peer lending, and other forms of financial services. Gradually, fintech gives more ease and access for a part of the society that has not been touched by financial services such as savings, debit cards, credit cards, even bank loans.
The Indonesian government itself seems to realise the importance of empowering and bringing together members of this part of the society. It plans to set up a Managing Team for the National Council for Inclusive Finance to increase access to formal financial services for low-income societies.
According to the plan, the National Council will consist of various ministries and state financial institutions, with President Joko Widodo leading the council himself.
What the government attempts to solve through the National Council had actually been done by tech startups in the past few years, with the products and services that they provide. Even with their status as a startup, with resources that are world apart from banking and other formal financial sector, fintech startups had made the effort to provide financial services with comparable quality as those by formal services.
The government itself has been bringing Indonesian fintech players on board as part of their effort to provide financial inclusion. The latest attempt being the supports given by Financial Services Authority (OJK), Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN), and several other partners in hosting a conference, exhibition and festival event called Indonesia Fintech Festival and Conference 2016 (IFFC 2016).
The event will be held at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE), Bumi Serpong Damai. Apart from a conference, the event will also held a Startup Competition and Speed Dating section as part of its offering.
The plan to form a National Council for Inclusive Finance had brought fintech into a more centralised and in-demand position. The spirit, the issues, and the solution provided by fintech is in line with what the government is expecting, which is to provide greater access to financial services in the society.
The article Kehadiran Fintech Jadi Semakin Sentral Bagi Indonesia dengan Rencana Dibentuknya Dewan Nasional Keuangan Inklusif was written by Prayogo Ryza and was first published on DailySocial. English translation by e27.
The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, submit your article here.
Image Credit: Andrew Branch on Unsplash
The post Fintech takes centre stage as Indonesia plans National Council for Inclusive Finance appeared first on e27.
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Macy’s said that Marla and Barry Beck, founders of the Bluemercury beauty chain which Macy’s acquired in 2015, will transition from the company.
Barry Beck, Bluemercury’s chief operating officer, will step down effective September 20, to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture. Marla Beck, Bluemercury’s chief executive officer, will stay with Bluemercury and continue to lead the business during a transition period.
“Bluemercury has experienced robust growth since becoming a part of Macy’s, Inc. in 2015, in large part due to the vision and leadership of Marla and Barry Beck. Beauty is one of Macy’s six destination businesses, and we will continue to leverage Bluemercury’s successful formula to learn from and drive growth,” said Jeff Gennette, chairman and CEO of Macy’s. “On behalf of the entire Macy’s team, I want to thank Barry and Marla for their time at Macy’s. We wish Barry all the best in his new endeavor and appreciate Marla’s continued commitment to the business.”
Bluemercury has nearly 190 locations across 26 states.
Macy’s said it is conducting a search for the next chief executive officer of Bluemercury and will consider both internal and external candidates.


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Last night Cruise Passenger announced the big winners in the cruise industry, as voted for by you.
Some of the top names in the cruise industry joined the Cruise Passenger team at the Observatory Hotel in Sydney for canapés, drinks and, of course, the highly anticipated awards.
Host Jeff Watson kept guests laughing with his jokes, while Cruise Passenger editor Sally Macmillan, associate publisher Chris Waite, adventure editor Roderick Eime, Cruise Passenger blogger John Pond (Click here for John’s photos from the evening) and ICCA general manager Brett Jardine presented the awards.
Silversea Cruises took out the luxury category for the coveted Best Luxury Cruise Line and Best Luxury Cruise Ship for Silver Shadow. Steve Odell, senior vice president Asia Pacific was on hand to collect the awards.
Premium cruise line Princess Cruises won the award for Best Premium Cruise Line while Cunard’s traditional ocean liner Queen Mary 2 is Cruise Passenger readers’ favourite premium cruise ship.
The Carnival brand did well, also winning Best Mid-Range Cruise Line and Best Mid-Range Cruise Ship for P&O Cruises and Pacific Dawn – a testament to the popularity of its lines and ships with the Australian and wider public.


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Card payments network Visa is currently experiencing a widespread outage with millions of customers unable to use their cards across the UK and Europe.
This is the network that processes transactions for a number of banks as well thousands of small and large businesses.
The scale of the issue is currently unclear with Visa currently "investigating" the problem which started at around 4pm on Friday, but has ruled out a cyber-hack.
A statement from Visa told The Mirror: "Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption.
"This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.
"We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.
"The issue has not been caused by any unauthorised access or malicious event. We will share an updated statement as we have one."
Mastercard payments are not affected and all payments are operating normally.
“We are seeing nothing abnormal on our network right now,” a spokesman said.
Disappointed shoppers have been unable to purchase items using chip and pin machines with many reporting failed transactions at major supermarkets including Asda, Sainsbury's and Aldi, who pay Visa to manage their card payments.
Mirror Money contacted all three retailers for a comment.
Asda told us it is experiencing difficulties in 'some' stores intermittently.
Another customer on twitter told us "it's chaos" in Asda's Bolton branch.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told The Mirror: "We are aware that Visa are currently experiencing problems. We are doing our best to help our customers and apologise for any inconvenience."
Card payments solutions company Paymentsense said "all merchants nationwide" are affected and unable to process transactions.
A Paymentsense alert on twitter said: "There is currently a disruption of service in taking payments from Visa.
"It is affecting all providers across the UK and Ireland.
"We are in touch with Visa to help provide a fix to this, and we'll issue and update via our social channels and email as soon we have one".
'I thought I'd run out of money'
Customers across the UK and Ireland have been left unable to make card purchases - in a move that could cost businesses millions of pounds in revenue.
No warning was issued to customers ahead of the outage while Visa says it is currently 'investigating' the problem, the exact cause of which remains unknown.
In some cases, customers said they thought they'd run out of money after seeing their cards bounce.
This was the scene at Aldi in Greenbank Road, Plymouth, this afternoon with shoppers describing queues as “mental”.
Elsewhere, New Look also appears to be experiencing technical difficulties on card payments.
The fashion house has declined to comment on how widespread the problem is across stores nationwide.
One customer told The Mirror he found out about the outage after having his First Direct card bounce in Costco.
Meanwhile Lloyds Bank said it's investigating the matter after receiving complaints about declined payments.
"We’ve received some reports from customers experiencing issues using their cards this afternoon & are currently investigating," a statement read.
Should I withdraw cash and are ATM machines working?
Cash machines are working, however with an exceptionally high volume of people using them, it's advised to avoid busy city centre ATMs.
That said, anyone heading out tonight is being urged to withdraw cash beforehand to avoid disappointment especially if you're looking to make a card payment.
Alternatively, you can pay using a Mastercard or Amex card instead.
The outage comes on the weekend after payday and just a month after a TSB crash that left thousands without access to their money following an IT migration that went wrong.
Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services, said: "In case this disruption is ongoing, customers should consider taking steps to protect themselves this evening.
"It's worth taking cash out of ATMs - although it may be best to avoid walking round with too much. If you do have MasterCard or Amex cards, or even PayPal depending how you've set it up, then you'll be able to use these.
“We'd also strongly advise people to keep any evidence of extra expenses they’ve incurred in order to try to claim them back.
“Sadly, the outage could also lead to phishing emails, texts and scams, so beware of messages from people claiming to be Visa.”


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As opposed to every other fast-food chain, Cowin supports the private member’s bill that was introduced by local Liberal MP Peter Abetz, who has himself caused a stir with his attempt to require that franchise agreements negotiated in the state should be in favour of existing business owners and that the parties must negotiate in good faith. But the Franchise Council has accused Abetz of failing to provide widespread examples. It says the present laws are fine, the change would undercut the ability of franchisors to get rid of bad operators and would drive away WA franchises.
Like Muzz Buzz. The drive-through coffee chain has threatened to move its head office interstate. Why is that particular chain important? Turns out Abetz’s son, David, with his wife, owns two Muzz Buzz stores. So with the rather vague threat that the father’s bill could destroy his son’s business, things actually do look a bit greasy. The Franchise Council – which had a go at Abetz at the hearing – has been highlighting that one of Cowin’s KFC stores supplied a few buckets of chicken for a fund-raiser before Abetz was elected to Parliament in 2008.
The idea being that Cowin wants things changed as his Competitive Foods, which runs many KFC stores, has previously been in disputes with KFC franchisor Yum Foods. Luckily Abetz has the receipt to show he paid for the finger-licking good fun.
The Australian Financial Review


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July 2021 – Market Update
The numbers are in for July 2021 Real Estate Market. July continued to be hot for sales and average prices across the GTA. Despite most people in vacation mode, demand for home ownership still remained strong this past month.
Let’s get in to the numbers:
In July we had almost 9.4K sales. This is down 14.9% compared to last year, although this may seem like a significant decrease, we have to look back to where we were a year ago. During this time last year we were just getting out of a lockdown. We had limiteds activity during March to the end of May which built up a lot of demands for the upcoming months. So in July of 2020 there were almost 3k more sales than the average sales for July over the past 10 years.
Single family home results:
Average price of a detached home was just over $1.4M = 21.7% increase
Average price of a semi detached home was $1.02 = 12.2% increase
Town homes average price was just under $849K = 15.9% increase
The condo segment results:
Overall, average sales price increased by 6%. Average price for July was just under $675K.
The market continues to see average sale prices increase, but we are also seeing a lack of inventory during this time. Maybe due to vacations, or kids home etc. There are a lot less properties for sale this past month than we would usually see at this time.


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Why is everyone suing Epic Games’ Fortnite?
SUBSCRIBE NOW to CBR! Click here: https://goo.gl/wMuSDD
Fortnite has taken the gaming world by storm and is still going on strong today, but there’ve been plenty of speed bumps on the road to success in the form of lawsuits. Whether it’s PUBG Corp. or a swarm of celebrities, there’ve been no shortage of lawsuits against Epic Games and, surprisingly, there have been plenty of times where Epic Games themselves have sued others!
It all started with Epic Games suing a bunch of Fortnite cheaters, including a 14-year-old minor. From there, Epic Games ended up getting sued by PUBG Corp., the developers of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, for infringing on their intellectual property. Then, 2 Milly, Alfonso Ribeiro and Russell Horning, aka The BackPack Kid, all sued Epic Games over the emotes in Fortnite. It’s time to take a look at why all this suing is going on, so enjoy the video and don’t forget to subscribe to CBR for more Fortnite content!
Our Social Media:
Tweets by CBR
VIDEO LINKS (for editors):
Fortnite – PunchNshoot (YouTube)
Fortnite – Keyword: Kenneth (YouTube)
Fortnite – Dylooon (YouTube)


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Posted: March 4, 2009
Ethanol is making a fashion statement with these jeans, available from Sam’s Club, according to a post on Domestic Fuel.
These “blue jeans gone green” are allegedly “made from cotton grown with less pesticides and sold in recycled packaging.” The jeans are branded “ethanol” with “e” buttons sporting and an ethanol patch on the back. But possibly the best feature is the bag of corn that comes with each pair, according to post author Joanna Schroeder.
I have to admit that when Joanna told me about these jeans at Commodity Classic, I didn’t believe they existed because I really could not find much about them on line, and in my world - if it’s not on-line, it doesn’t exist. But Joanna went out and found an actual pair at Sam’s Club and bought them to do a post on Domestic Fuel.
She says there is a label on the jeans which promotes www.allianceforclimateprotection.com and says, “A portion of proceeds from the sale of the jeans goes to campaigns to help support environmental programs,” but she has been unable to find out any information on the site about the clothing line or the programs that are supported through the purchase of the jeans.
Post update: Added the photo of the corn packet attached to the jeans. Photo credit goes to Robyn Slunecka (the wife of Tom Slunecka, former NCGA staffer and EPIC executive director who currently works for Phibro) who actually bought the jeans and served as Joanna’s photographer.


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GN Store Nord announced in its year-end fiscal report that the company experienced a revenue increase of 12% to $1.24 billion (DKK 8,651 million) in 2016, with 6% organic growth. The Copenhagen-based hearing instruments company (GN Hearing) and headset manufacturer Netcom (GN Audio) is the parent group of ReSound, Beltone, Interton, and the recently acquired Audigy Group, as well as Jabra headsets. GN Hearing further strengthened its focus and strategic direction as a dedicated hearing instrument company when the company divested itself of its diagnostic equipment division, announcing the sale of Otometrics to Natus Medical in September and at the same time forming a strategic partnership with Natus.
GN Hearing reports that it gained market share in 2016 for the 6th consecutive year, underlining the company’s momentum. Commercial execution is said to be responsible for driving revenue growth by the flagship product ReSound LiNX2. In a press statement, it said the launch of the company’s new strategy for 2017-2019, “Hear More, Do More, Be More,” has delivered strong earnings, with EBITA reaching $226.9 million (DKK 1,583 million)—equivalent to a 14% increase. GN Hearing widened its footprint in North America with the acquisition of Audigy Group, a provider of business and performance management solutions to independent hearing care professionals and leading university programs.
“For the 6th consecutive year, GN Hearing gained market share in a hearing aid market that in 2016 was very competitive,” said GN Hearing CEO Anders Hedegaard in a press statement. “This achievement was driven by our ability to drive commercial excellence through our market leading innovative product portfolio. In 2016, we also laid the foundation for an even more focused hearing instrument company with the strategic acquisition of Audigy and the divestment of Otometrics.”
The company says GN Audio achieved significant market share gains in the important CC&O market with strong growth across geographies and channels. GN Audio is said to have improved its presence in North America in 2016 with the acquisition of VXi Corporation, a leading US based manufacturer of professional headset solutions.
GN’s overall results were in line with its 2016 guidance and slightly exceeded expectations for the fourth quarter. Along with the divestiture of Otometrics and purchase of Audigy, the positive financial report also follows a very successful but tumultuous year in 2015 and the recent loss of the Costco Kirkland brand contract in 2016.
In 2017, GN Hearing expects annual organic revenue growth of 6-8% with an EBITA margin of 20- 22%, and GN Audio expects annual organic revenue growth of 6-9% with an EBITA margin of 17-19%.


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Nosto Recognized as the Top Ecommerce Personalization Company by Leading Review Site G2 Crowd
G2 Crowd, a leading review site for businesses worldwide, has recently released its list of Best Software Companies in Europe – and I am incredibly proud to announce that Nosto has been recognized as the top ecommerce personalization company across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The list is based on 66,000+ user reviews of software products featured on the G2 platform and examines over 900 companies across the EMEA region.
In addition, the Nosto personalization platform for ecommerce has been recognized as a “Leader” globally in the G2 Crowd Grid for E-Commerce Personalization.
What does it mean to earn a spot on this list?
Over 750,000 users submit product reviews to G2 Crowd, with 80,000+ products and 1,600+ tech and service categories featured on the platform. Our team has invested a significant amount of time and effort to deliver only the most powerful AI, a seamless UI and patented technology that puts us at the forefront of retail innovation. This is reflected in the experiences of the very users who voted us leaders across ecommerce:
This recognition is a powerful testament to the dedication of our 120+ Nostonians across 7 offices worldwide. Not only does our team work hard daily in the service of empowering our customers to succeed, but we achieve these successes with Nosto’s core values at heart.
Equally as important to our position as a leader in Ecommerce Personalization are the thousands of retailers who put their trust in Nosto to deliver personalized shopping experiences. We are dedicated to delivering world-class personalization to these global retailers and will continue to empower their success.


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Disney taking agents to Infinity And Beyond!
(Photo above: Disney’s Claire Bilby and Marlie Morrison pictured during the Toy Story Land North America Tour’s stop in Toronto earlier this month.)
One of the first things that Claire Bilby, senior vice-president, sales & service for Walt Disney World, told a group of about 300 travel agents and tour operators in Toronto recently was “my team and I are your advocates – you’ve got a friend in us.”
Rather appropriate considering that Bilby was leading the Toy Story Land North America Tour which is all part of the celebrations leading up to the opening of the all-new Toy Story Land – located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – that’s set to open on June 30 of this year and where visitors will have a chance to meet the icon characters of Pixar’s Toy Story films – Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Slinky Dog, the Aliens, the Green Army Men, and many, many more.
In fact, agents and operators in Toronto – which was the first stop on the Disney Toy Story Land North American tour – had a chance to meet a few of the characters, including the Green Army Men, Woody and … even Buzz.
But with Disney, there’s always more magic, as the company has a host of openings, new products, special events happening at the Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland; aboard Disney Cruise Line; with Adventures by Disney; and at the Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa.
To Infinity and Beyond
And clearly, with all that’s happening this year and next, Canadian travel agents have a significant role to play, with Bilby telling her audience that: “We need you to tell our story to your clients.”
Speaking with Canadian Travel Press, Bilby noted that Canada is “a very large market” for all of Disney’s businesses and particularly for Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line.
“Travel agents really play a critical role in driving that business, whether it’s through our own Walt Disney Travel Company or through all of our great partners, like Air Canada Vacations and TravelBrands.”
Yet with all of the new things coming online at Disney, Bilby is keenly aware of the amount of information that will be coming at agents in the next little while.
On that point, she observed: “It’s really important for us to make sure they’re educated because of the consumers, we know they love to go to travel agents to get the information, and it’s important that [agents] can give them the ‘real-time’ news of what’s going on.”
Lots of support
To support agents, Bilby says that Disney is doing a number of things, telling CTP: “Our sales managers are always in the agencies doing training. On www.disneytravelagents.ca/ , we’re now doing biweekly webinars – always on different subject matter that they can come [online] and learn about. We have the College of Disney Knowledge, and then, we have different fam programs at our different destinations [and on our] different products where they can learn [about them] first-hand.”
Asked whether Disney has been seeing increased demand for education and training from agents, Marlie Morrison, managing director, marketing & sales Parks and Resorts – Canada/Asia Pacific for The Walt Disney Company (Canada) Ltd., noted that “with all the new things that are coming from Disney and their destinations, [agents] are asking for more.”
Morrison continued: “To Claire’s point, we’re going to be delivering webinars biweekly now, and I think that will help them keep up to date with everything because there is a lot coming, this summer, next summer, etc., so we’ve definitely seen people asking for that information.”
Time keeps on ticking
In this respect, Bilby told CTP: “What we’ve also found is time is precious for everybody, and we’ve made a lot of announcements about [what’s going on at] our destinations. So, the webinars are nice because we focus on one thing [in those webinars.]”
She pointed out that some agents may want to do an Adventures by Disney session, while others may be interested in the webinar on Disney Cruise Line, while still others may look for training on other Disney destinations and products.
In this respect, Bilby said: “We chunk it up for them, and we actually have experts from the businesses. We have found for us that if we give them little chunks and give them ongoing [education] that works better versus trying to do the two hours every month sort of thing because time is so precious.”
Along with the webinars, Disney also offers agents a range of social media channels, and she said in Toronto that moving forward, Disney “will be reaching out to agents in new ways to let them know that we’re there for them.”
As for the take-away for agents, Bilby told CTP: “I want them to know that we are there for them and that we’re there to work with them. Whether that’s with their [Disney] sales manager or whatever, I want them to feel like they’ve got one-stop shopping for any of their questions and the support that they need.”
For more, Canadian agents can go to www.disneytravelagents.ca/ – and which Bilby said will soon be updated based on input from agents.


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Savvis, a St.Louis, Missouri based internet services provider is looking to sell the content delivery network part of its business, according to those familiar with the plans.
“The inquiry would fall into the category of rumor which we would not comment on,” Carter B. Cromley, Director, Public Relations & Industry Analyst Relations at Savvis says, in response to our query. Content delivery network sources and some folks on Wall Street say bankers have been actively shopping this deal.
There have been a few bids from interested parties, though nothing has been finalized, and the deal might not go through. The bids for the 91-person business that encompasses about sixty clusters in 29 countries are said to be over $100 million.
Savvis owns what used to be Sand Piper and Digital Island’s CDN assets. Cable & Wireless had bought Digital Island for about $340 million in the first Internet bubble. So compared to that, the sale price is peanuts.
In combination with WamNet, the company brings in about $40 million or so in sales, though a majority of its CDN business comes from Microsoft.
The buyers interested in the company could include anyone from private equity investors to large national level telecom operators and even Akamai. In fact, Akamai could buy the company and further increase its control of the CDN market, and the IP involved with CDNs.
Sand Piper Digital Island was involved in some litigation with Akamai.
The high price for this tiny business is indicative of the reversal of fortunes for the CDN business, which has been a primary beneficiary of media moving online. A few days ago, Internap acquired Vitalstream for about $217 million. Limelight Networks, another private company raised $130 million in capital to grow its business, even though the company is locked in litigation with Akamai.
But the primary driver for the CDN activity is Akamai’s stock price – the company now has a market capitalization of around $5 billion. Savvis is smart to get out of the business now. It makes money when people buy bandwidth. CDNs save that bandwidth, and as a result two businesses are at odds with each other. Okay that is too logical.
Anyway as they say if ducks are quacking, feed them.


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The war on fraud is not going well, according to a new study. Advertisers are expected to lose an estimated $7.2 billion globally this year as a result of fraudulent impressions, or bots, according to the study, conducted by the Association of National Advertisers and White Ops, the online advertising fraud tracker. (Other studies have come up with similar estimates.)
There has been little recent progress in curbing bot fraud — the study found that fraud levels are relatively unchanged compared to a year ago.
Forty-nine ANA member companies participated in the 2015 Bot Baseline Study. Those participants deployed White Ops detection tags on their digital advertising to measure bot fraud. Data was collected from nearly 10 billion online advertising impressions across 1,300 campaigns over 61 days, from August 1 through September 30, 2015.
Key findings from the report include:
In 2015, advertisers had a range of bot percentages varying from 3% to 37%, compared to percentages from 2% to 22% in 2014. But the average and overall rates of fraud were basically unchanged. Less than a third of the advertisers that participated in both surveys experienced a decrease in their bot rates.
Media with higher cost-per-thousand impressions (CPMs) were more vulnerable to bots. These segments provide a stronger economic incentive for bot-net operators to commit fraud. Display media with CPMs over $10 had 39% higher bot rates than lower CPM media. Video media with CPMs over $15 had 173% higher bot rates than lower CPM video media.
Programmatic ad buys displayed higher levels of fraud. Programmatic display ads had 14% more bots than the study average, while programmatic video ads had 73% more bots than average.
Sourced traffic (any method by which publishers acquire more visitors through third parties) continues to show a higher level of sophisticated bots, and was over three times more likely to contain bots than unsourced traffic.
Campaigns targeting certain demographics, or retargeting potential customers, typically resulted in more bots. For example, programmatic buys with Hispanic targeting were nearly twice as likely to encounter bot traffic than non-Hispanic targeted media.
“The level of criminal, non-human traffic literally robbing marketers’ brand-building investments is a travesty,” said Bob Liodice, ANA president and CEO. “The staggering financial losses and the lack of real, tangible progress at mitigating fraud highlights the importance of the industry’s Trustworthy Accountability Group in fighting this war.”
The Trustworthy Accountability Group, known as TAG, was established in November of 2014 by the IAB, the 4As, and the ANA. It’s a joint marketing-media industry program designed to eradicate digital advertising fraud, malware, ad-supported piracy, and other deficiencies in the digital communications supply chain.
Liodice added that the ongoing fraud problem “underscores the need for the entire marketing ecosystem to manage their media investments with far greater discipline and control against a backdrop of increasingly sophisticated fraudsters.”
White Ops CEO Michael Tiffany said that while parts of the industry have taken effective steps to combat bot fraud, “we are still facing an uphill battle to achieve broad acceptance of the need for deeper focus on the fraud problem, and ultimately to reverse these financial trends.”
In addition to supporting TAG, the study recommends several steps that industry players should take. They include:
Understand the programmatic supply chain and request inventory transparency: Ask about the role of each player in the process and know your partner’s partners.
Request transparency for sourced traffic: Buyers should request transparency from publishers around traffic sourcing and build language into RFPs and insertion orders that requires publishers to identify all third-party sources of traffic.
Include language on non-human traffic in terms and conditions: Buyers should consider writing into insertion orders that they will not pay for fraudulent impressions.
Use third-party monitoring: Monitor all traffic with a consistent tool.
Ensure that your anti-fraud policies are understood and followed by all external partners.
Commenting on the study, TAG CEO Mike Zaneis stated that it should be considered a “call to arms” for the industry. “TAG was created just over a year ago to fight the types of criminal activities outlined in this report, including fraud, piracy, and malware, and the programs we’ve deployed in recent months will help the industry choke off the money flowing to criminals and create an evergreen market where marketers can be sure they are working with trusted partners.”


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The new release has no new features or supported applications, instead focusing on tweaking existing cleaning routines and improving the System Monitoring tool on the Professional edition.
Sandboxing makes it possible to isolate programs from the rest of your system for testing or security purposes. Sandboxie 5.12 is the latest build of such a shareware tool for Windows.
Version 5.12 now adds support sandboxing Microsoft Office 2013, 2016 or 365’s ClickToRun installer for paid users, while improving performance on earlier versions of Windows.
Open-source password-management tool KeePass 2.34 has been released for Windows. The new release’s headline feature is a digitally signed version information file, which is used to check for updates.
The feature was unveiled after a potential vulnerability was discovered whereby hackers could dupe KeePass users into downloading malware through the online update check.
Just one month on from the previous stable release, Opera Software has released Opera 38 FINAL. The latest release of this desktop browser for Windows, Mac and Linux has one major headline of note: new battery and power saver features for laptops.
The new build also refines the app’s ad-blocking tool by allowing users to import their own block lists, plus makes several minor Speed Dial improvements.
Snagit 13 for Windows and Snagit 4 for Mac released, introduce Panoramic Capture and animated GIF tools
Headline new features include a Panoramic capture tool, redesigned Capture Windows on the PC platform and a number of new tools, including the ability to create GIFs from video recordings with a single click.
Mozilla has released Firefox 47 FINAL for Windows, Mac and Linux. Version 47 adds support for Google’s Widevine CDM, enabling compliant sites including Amazon Video to stream DRM-protected video natively using HTML5 rather than via a third-party video plugin.
Elsewhere the new build drops support for add-ons that use the Firefox User Extension Library, plus implements a tweak that allows pages in Reader Mode to be read aloud to the user.
Swiss open-source cloud-storage browser Cyberduck 5.0 has been released for Mac and Windows. The tool provides a friendly front-end for browsing a variety of different cloud servers, including FTP/SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Space.
Version 5.0 sees the program get a minor facelift on the Mac platform, plus it adds support for two extra storage providers, including Google Drive, support for which had previously been dropped.
The app, which allows users to control their computers remotely through their mobile device, adds support for the latest Apple devices and improves the way it interacts with Windows 10 PCs via added support for Tablet Mode and gestures. Game Mode has also been improved on the iOS app.
Stardock has released Fences 3.0, a major new version of its Windows desktop organization tool. The new release brings Fences bang up to date, with support for Windows 10 and high DPI monitors.
Fences 3.0 also introduces several new features, including the ability to roll up fences to their title bar as well as support for navigating through folder structures from within the fence itself.
Norwegian browser developer Opera Software has launched Opera VPN 1.0, a free VPN service for iPhone and iPad users. The app provides users with the ability to encrypt their connection to the web for additional security, plus spoof one of five countries to bypass regional or network-specific restrictions. Other features include the blocking of both ads and tracking cookies.
VPNs -- or Virtual Private Networks -- were developed primarily to provide users with a secure network connection even through inherently insecure networks, such as open Wi-Fi hotspots. This encrypted connection can also be configured to provide the user with the means of providing a false location.
Opera Software has released Opera 37 FINAL, a major new release of its desktop web browser for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. The latest release contains two new major features of note: built-in ad-blocking and support for video pop-outs.
The ad-block feature has also been added to the brand new release of Opera Mini for Android 16.0, also out today.
Mozilla has released Firefox 46.0 FINAL, a relatively minor refresh of its desktop browser for Windows, Linux and Mac with no standout new features.
Also released is Firefox for Android 46.0, which does at least include some noteworthy new features such as the ability to display previously cached pages offline and support for sync via Firefox Accounts.
The new release sees another user interface revamp, plus focuses on refining existing tools rather than introducing major new features. Version 6.0.4 opens with support for High DPI displays, and rolls out various improvements to the Assisted Search tool. This includes moving the Search bar to the top of the note list, providing more detailed descriptions of the search results and the extension of the tool to cover the user’s entire account, with options for expanding the search to include recently deleted notes as well as general refinements.
SoftMaker Software has released SoftMaker FreeOffice 2016, a brand new version of its office suite for Windows and Linux that’s free for both personal and commercial use.
The new release comes with the promise of improved performance as well as better compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. It also includes a number of new features and tweaks, confined largely to the suite’s presentation and spreadsheet components.
Vivaldi Technologies has unveiled Vivaldi 1.0 FINAL, the first stable release of a web browser aimed squarely at those who want full control over their web browsing experience.
Vivaldi has been developed by a team led by Jon S von Tetzchner, co-founder of rival Opera, and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Vivaldi’s moniker -- "Not for everybody, just for you" -- highlights its different approach to other major web browsers.


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05 June 2012 06:14 [Source: ICIS news]
By Trisha Huang
MELBOURNE (ICIS)--Spot methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) prices into ?xml:namespace>
MIBK prices were assessed as down by close to 9% in the past two weeks to about $2,000/tonne (€1,600/tonne) CFR (cost & freight)
“We expect to see a further decline in MIBK prices. It’s a matter of time before prices hit $1,900/tonne CFR China,” said a trader.
“However, downstream demand should recover when MIBK returns to a more sensible price level,” the trader added.
Feedstock acetone prices gained 7.4% in the same period to $1,015/tonne CFR China for the week ended 11 May, ICIS data showed.
Mitsui Chemicals’ unexpected plant outage worsened an existing supply shortage in
Record high prices forced MIBK end-users in
“MIBK prices were too high, compared with upstream acetone values, or the prices of other solvents,” the trader said.
Several Chinese MIBK manufacturers said their sales have slowed in recent weeks, as paint and coating makers in early May began switching to lower-priced alternatives, such as butyl acetate (butac), to cut costs.
Meanwhile, heightened fears about the state of the global economy have triggered a broad-based commodity sell-off that sent oil prices to their lowest levels since October 2011, along with the prices of various basic petrochemicals.
Acetone prices into
“Downstream buyers are understandably cautious, in view of the broader petrochemical market downturn, and because no-one can predict when prices would bottom out,” a Chinese MIBK producer said.
End-users have been buying smaller quantities, albeit more frequently, in an effort to average down their raw material costs as prices continued to slide, according to the producer.
“However, the extent of the demand contraction and the pace of the price decline have exceeded our expectations,” the producer added.
Domestic MIBK prices in eastern China plunged by nearly 12% to yuan (CNY) 15,500-15,700/tonne ($2,433-2,465/tonne) ex-works this week, from their peak at CNY17,600-17,800/tonne ex-works for the week ended 22 May, according to data collected by ICIS.
“Downstream demand in the coating and paint sectors has never really been strong this year, and now, demand from the rubber chemicals sector is also weakening,” the trader said.
Rubber chemical additives, which are key ingredients in tyre production, account for about 50% of
Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology,
The rubber chemical additive producer last month curtailed its output by about 10 percentage points to around 85% of capacity, because it faced difficulty in fully transferring the increase in its feedstock MIBK costs to downstream tyre makers.
As demand weakened, the resumption of MIBK output at Taizhou has helped to restore supply.
“Taizhou’s monthly output can more or less offset the spot volumes lost from the outage at Mitsui Chemcials,” said a Chinese end-user, who predicts that domestic MIBK prices may drop to CNY13,000-13,500/tonne by July.
The strong prices seen in
“If you compare MIBK and acetone prices, the producers are making a hefty margin, which means there is still a lot of room for MIBK [prices] to fall,” said the Chinese end-user.
($1 = €0.80)
($1 = CNY6.37)
Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections
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Asian Chemical Connections


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A 90-year-old chip shop worker from Dumfries and Galloway is thought to be the world's longest-serving chip shop worker.
Bettina Dawson, who still works six nights a week, has served around half a million fish suppers in her 77 years of working at The Moffat Chippy.
Mrs Dawson started helping her parents out behind the counter in 1936 and apart from working at a munitions factory during the second world war, she has worked there ever since.
More top news
Carlisle's annual giant puppet parade took place in the city centre this afternoon.
Hundreds of young muslims were in Keswick today as part of a bid to raise more than half a million pounds for UK charities.
One of the biggest events in the calendar for the Scottish rural community has been taking place at Drumlanrig Country Estate.


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HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holdings, the parent company of Kmart, expects to make a profit of between $155 million and $195 million in first quarter 2012, compared with a $165 million loss in first quarter 2011, the company said Tuesday.
In a statement released in advance of its annual shareholders meeting Wednesday, Sears Holdings said the profit includes $235 million from the sales of stores in the United States and Canada, which generated $440 million of cash proceeds.
For the quarter, which ended on Saturday, Kmart saw a 1.6% decrease in comps, while Sears saw a 1% decrease, resulting in a 1.3% decrease for the company overall. Still, the company said it had double-digit increases in apparel and footwear categories, offset by declines in appliance and consumer electronics sales. Kmart's decrease also was the result of consumer electronics sales declines, while apparel and footwear saw increases.
On Monday, the company also provided an update on its plan to separate its Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores businesses from Sears Holdings. The company expected the separation to allow it to focus on its core business and raise between $400 million and $500 million, which it will use for other purposes.


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Mt.Gox, the troubled Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange, tried to signal it was on the long road to recovery Monday, stating it would look to restore the business and recover damages to repay creditors.
Rather than filing for bankruptcy on Friday, the company opted for "bankruptcy protection," a Chapter 11-style civil rehabilitation that gives the company time to reorganize its affairs with lawyers treating it as an ongoing concern.
Despite detailing that it had outstanding debts of about 6.5 billion Japanese yen ($63.6 million), 850,000 lost bitcoins and 127,000 empty-handed customers, the exchange said it was looking to continue doing business so it could start repaying its creditors.
(Read More: A user just filed the first lawsuit against Mt.Gox)
"(This) will not be for the sole benefit of the company but for that of the whole bitcoin community," the company said in a statement posted on its website on Monday morning.
"All efforts will now be made to restore the business and recover damages to repay debts to creditors. We hope for the understanding and cooperation of all."
Mt.Gox reiterated on Monday that it believed nearly $500 million worth of bitcoin may have been lost. It blamed the disappearance on a bug in bitcoin's framework called "transaction malleability." This means that while users were receiving incomplete transaction messages when using the exchange, in reality bitcoins may have been illicitly moved by hackers out of their accounts.
And it's not just its missing bitcoins that Mt.Gox is investigating. The company said that it had found large discrepancies between the amount of cash it holds in financial institutions and the amount deposited by its users. This black hole in fiat currency – money that's considered legal tender -- amounts to approximately 2.8 billion Japanese yen ($27 million), the exchange said on Monday.
(Read More: Bitcoin's Mt.Gox disappears, insolvency feared)
The new statement, however, offered little hope for users that had bitcoins held at the exchange with legal experts suggesting that they would be last in line for any repayments that are available. The issues continue to cause anger in the bitcoin community with some customers taking to Reddit to express their dissatisfaction.
"How do funds in the bank go missing?," asked one contributor to the Reddit debate. Another said that users would have to be "pretty desperate" to want to give Mt.Gox any further business. The company set up a call center on Monday to respond to inquiries from customers, but even that has sparked criticism.
(Read more: How to make money from bitcoin)
Kolin Burges, a U.K.-based former software programmer, traveled to Tokyo to be part of a small protest outside Mt.Gox's office in recent weeks. Writing on his personal blog on Monday he said he tried to phone the new customer helpline four times and was treated to a selection of ambient music before receiving no answer.
The Japanese exchange - which once claimed it handled around 80 percent of all global dollar trades for bitcoin - is an online marketplace where people can buy or sell bitcoins using different currencies. Its customers have been unable to withdraw their bitcoins and convert them into U.S. dollars since the beginning of February.
(Read More: Mt.Gox CEO: 'I'm still in Japan')
Its website was abruptly taken offline last Tuesday as company execs began to find out the full extent of its problems. The exchange deleted all of its tweets from its Twitter account last Monday and CEO Mark Karpeles resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation last Sunday. The company has announced that it had moved offices due to "security problems," and officially filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday afternoon.
But that's not all. It also received a subpoena from a U.S. federal prosecutor last week and Japanese authorities are also investigating its abrupt closure. Reuters reported on Friday that the first lawsuit against Mt.Gox had been filed in a U.S. District Court in Chicago on Thursday.
Meanwhile, there was good news for the industry in the U.K. on Monday. The HM Revenue & Customs has told traders that it is looking to scrap a 20 percent value added tax on the new technology, according to reports. It also said it would not charge a levy on margins either. The price of bitcoin has remained steady throughout last week's revelations, trading close to $550, according to CoinDesk.
—By CNBC.com's Matt Clinch; Follow him on Twitter @mattclinch81


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Home Tags TCL
BlackBerry has been on a comeback tour with its Key series phones that last few years. Unfortunately, the latest Key2 LE may not live up to its siblings.
TCL is targeting budget shoppers this holiday season with the new Alcatel 1X Evolve which just launched at Metro by T-Mobile.
TCL has brought back BlackBerry and now Palm. They stayed true to BlackBerry but they missed the mark with not making a Palm Pilot.
The new Android Go Oreo-powered Alcatel 3T from TCL looks to shake up the budget Android tablet market - but will it be relevant?
BlackBerry and TCL are back with a new midrange phone the BlackBerry Key 2 LE that shares the same style as the KEY 2 except with more colors and at a cheaper price.
Palm is expected to launch a comeback smartphone this year. And according to a recent leak, the product will be a low-end affair with minimal specs.
TCL is all set to revive Palm this year. And according to a new Bluetooth SIG filing, the company's first comeback handset might be called Pepito.
Matt and Andrew take on the BlackBerry Key2, the new smartphone just announced from TCL. What makes it so special, if anything at all? Tune in to find out!
The unlocked smartphone comes to Amazon starting in late May, followed by Best Buy and Walmart. Compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and other GSM networks, the budget friendly phone features a massive 6-inch display.
A study by Security Research Labs led the firm to contend that various Android manufacturers have been falsely assuring consumers their device security is current when, in fact, no such update was ever applied.
It's happening! According to a new report, TCL and Verizon are partnering up to launch a new Palm smartphone with Android, coming later this year.
Alcatel announced the availability of its fist Android Go phone for the US market. Alongside the 1X, the company will also launch the 3V.
Available in select markets immediately, the budget flagship Alcatel 5 runs Android 7.0 and features a dual-camera configuration for selfies. Sold in Metallic Black and Metallic Gold, it comes with two options for memory.
TCL launched the BlackBerry Motion keyboard-less smartphone on the US market back at CES 2018. Well if you haven’t placed an order for the...
One of the biggest consumer electronics shows is coming up next month. CES 2018 will be taking place in Las Vegas between January 9...


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On October 26, the final and awarding ceremony of the "Fourth Lichuang Electronic Design Contest" organized by Lichuang Mall and Runshi Technology and other local chip manufacturers was successfully held in Shenzhen! As an excellent platform for electronic design enthusiasts to compete on the same stage, low thresholds, high standards and high bonuses are still standard.
In a period of more than 4 months, the competition received more than 800 works from all over the country, covering smart homes, smart wearable devices, IoT Internet of Things, security monitoring, drones and other innovative technology fields. The quality is the highest in the history.
Compared with the previous three competitions, this year's Lichuang Electronic Design Competition has more sponsors and cooperation capital. More than 20 media on site paid attention to this competition throughout the event. The speeches of the sponsors at the awards ceremony all affirmed the success of the Lichuang Electronic Design Competition and pointed out that it has a positive and far-reaching impact on the domestic electronic circuit industry.
At the awards ceremony, big coffee gathered, Li Lincheng CEO Yang Linjie, Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School teacher Xing Xinpeng, Runic Technology FAE Ling Dehui, Sequoia Capital China Fund Vice President Pu Xun, Jia Lichuang Investment Managing Partner Liu Zhuochen All attended the finals and awards ceremony.


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Looking to fly this holiday? Be ready for fuller flights and higher fares despite cheaper oil and global turmoil.
Philanthropy by high-net-worth families not only gets them tax deductions but fosters communication and engages young members.
After a huge quarter, GrubHub says it wants an even bigger bite of the $70 billion takeout market.
If you want to network better to grow your business, don't stop at LinkedIn. More unique networking apps are out there.
Don't believe these four myths about the death of mom-and-pop shops. There's more business opportunity than you think.
The era of the mega-athlete sponsorship deal is coming to an end, some experts say—and the killer is social media.
New suitcases and travel gear comes with options such as built-in feet massagers, bulletproof fabric and bedbug zappers.
To ensure retirees don't run out of money, the Feds have just issued guidance to expand the use of these investment vehicles.
Health workers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center are using Tabasco sauce to train for Ebola patient care.
Former Apple retail chief and one-time JC Pennny CEO Ron Johnson will launch an e-commerce venture to help shoppers find products.
Ford CEO Mark Fields says the company is considering a Tesla-style high performance electric vehicle, USA Today reports.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating the U.S. response to Ebola.
Businesses don't have much faith that recent college hires will stick around for very long, a new survey says.
The wealthy are cloaking their names when buying homes, raising unsolved mysteries surrounding some high-profile properties.
Companies that take a fearful approach to social media need to step up and show some guts, writes an HR consultant.
Sales for iTunes Store Music is down more than 13 percent, Dow Jones reports.
There's a slew of things pros on the Street believe that just don't seem to make a lot of sense.
Should the zombie apocalypse come knocking, these are the 25 worst cities to seek refuge according to Trulia.
More groundwater is being used in California. But for hundreds of thousands of people, it may be contaminated.
Drink up: Cocktail and spirit pairings worth a raid of your kids' Halloween candy stash.


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In the days of the Armada, a fleet of warships, the scuttlebutt was the rumor or gossip that would spread throughout the ship. Today, Armada Law Corp presents The Scuttlebutt, a daily summery of news articles that people within the cannabis, hemp and plant medicine industries are chatting about along with links to the full articles.
In today’s news:
#cannabispolitics – “On Tuesday, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol had collected more than 123,000 valid signatures from registered voters to put the adult-use cannabis legalization initiative on the ballot for an election to be held in November. However, he said that the results of the signature verification and tabulation “indicate that petitioners filed an insufficient number of valid signatures,” adding that the campaign would have 10 days to obtain and submit the additional signatures needed to hit the goal of 124,046 valid signatures.”
#hempindustry – “A group of hemp processors and retailers whose businesses heavily relied on delta-8 products sued Maryland regulators on Monday, claiming that the state is boxing them out of the new recreational cannabis industry….
Under the new law, anyone who sells a product with THC above the cap will need to get a Maryland cannabis license, but the state restricts the number of cannabis business licenses and new licenses are not expected to be issued until Jan. 1 or later…
According to the lawsuit filed by the hemp businesses, these rules may appear designed to diversify the industry but actually will create relatively small changes. That’s because the current industry already is dominated by existing cannabis companies, the lawsuit said.”
#cannabispayments – “Mastercard
has told payment processors and banks to stop allowing marijuana transactions on its debit cards.
Following cease-and-desist letters sent by Mastercard last week, companies that facilitated PIN debit payments for cannabis have been attempting to provide alternatives to the dispensaries that were using them, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (July 26).
A spokesperson for Mastercard told Bloomberg: “As we were made aware of this matter, we quickly investigated it. In accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that offer payment services to cannabis merchants and connect them to Mastercard to terminate the activity.””
#cannabisindustry – “Those who want to organize a showcase must apply to the OCM
. To be eligible, the organizer must partner with at least three or more Adult-Use Conditional Cultivators (AUCC) and a CAURD (CGS vendor). For every three AUCCs, the showcase may also include an Adult-Use Conditional Processor (AUCP) and sell cannabis products the partner AUCP produced and distributed to the vendor. For every three AUCC partners in the showcase, an additional CAURD may participate as an additional vendor.
For showcases to be held before September 5, 2023, applications must be submitted at least 10 business days in advance. Applications for a showcase to be held after September 5, 2023, must be submitted at least 20 business days before the showcase date. OCM will allow for application amendments up to 5 business days in advance of the showcase.”
#cannabislawsuit – “The Tuesday lawsuit accuses The Harvest Foundation LLC owners Larry Lemons and Donnie Burton of trashing the company by violating state regulations to the point that Nevada’s cannabis authority suspended its licenses in 2021.
“MariMed learned that the [Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board] had suspended all of Harvest’s cannabis licenses due to the negligent and willful actions of the defendants in violation of Nevada law,” the lawsuit says. “Among other things, NCCB accused Harvest of having failed to report break-ins at its facilities, allowing under-age workers into its facilities, and failing to inform NCCB of missing cannabis.”
Even though MariMed Inc. technically paid for the Nevada-based company, the deal was slow to finalize. Its two owners failed to mention the suspensions, the lawsuit says. Now, the NCCB is “in the course of selling the Harvest assets.””
Nevada Pot Co. Owners Reneged On Sale, Suit Alleges: https://www.law360.com/articles/1704363?utm_source=android&utm_medium=android&utm_campaign=android-shared


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Intel has speeded up the delivery of two new Xeon processors. Originally due in 2006, Intel plans to introduce both dual-core, dual-processor and dual-core multi-processor Xeons, codenamed Paxville, in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Paxville DP will use the E7520 chipset, while the multi-processor Paxville MP will use Intel's E8500 chipset that Intel launched earlier this year. Paxville runs at 2.8GHz, and includes 2MB of L2 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus.
Intel's server marketing manager Cengiz Oztelcan attributed the move to "excellent execution of engineering, testing and validation efforts", adding that "the silicon is very healthy".
Intel said that Paxville DP is "targeted at early adopters and evaluators", while the next generation of dual-core server processors, codenamed Dempsey, which, together with a chipset codenamed Blackford, will constitute the platform codenamed Bensley. Bensley uses 65nm technology compared to Paxville's 90nm, and includes improved memory-addressing technology, plus faster processor and bus speeds. That and the workstation equivalent codenamed Glidewell, remain on target for the first quarter of 2006, said Oztelcan.
At this point, the company's entire server and workstation line-up will be dual-core. Most, including the Xeons, will also include Virtualisation Technology (VT).
It's therefore arguable that, if Intel had not brought forward the Paxville launch, Dempsey would be so close behind it would have run the risk of being subsumed, with very few hardware vendors wanting to build products around it.
It's also true that AMD released a range of dual-core Opteron processors earlier this year for the first time. It included four and two-processor server chips. And since Intel has become accustomed to being first with a new technology and is presumably not enjoying the sensation of having been second to market for a year or two, its reaction has been to bring the launch of the dual-core chips forward. One analyst said that the move was "for chest-thumping purposes."